Gay: The New Black?

I do hear grumbling in the media, by pundits and community leaders about the “gay rights” movement usurping the term “civil rights” or equating themselves with the struggle of black Americans for their “civil rights”.

I recently had a dialog with some of my peers and I thought I would share my thoughts:

I do find it interesting when I hear anger over the LGBT community appropriating the term “civil rights” or equating LGBT struggles with black struggles. I have a point of view that seems to be overlooked by everyone. I cannot believe that I am the only one that feels this way.

If we somehow imagine that the black struggle for civil rights set the bar on the amount of discrimination and violence that any minority group should suffer before they achieve equality, then we have guaranteed that no other minority group will ever achieve equality. For how can this country allow another group to suffer as much as our country let blacks suffer. Therefore, we have already condemned all current and future struggles to failure and have declared them moot.

If indeed a finite number of persons had to suffer death, torture, discrimination and ridicule, I would ask what is that number? For if you could tell me that number I am certain that we would find among our ranks a number equal that would be willing to sacrifice themselves to ensure that the suffering of the whole community ends once and for all.

The conclusion from this line of thought?

Will the suffering of any community in the United States ever exceed the suffering of the black community in their fight for civil rights? The rational answer would be no. Well then, I must confess that the civil rights struggles of our country are over. We are all equal. Pat yourselves on the back.